For the last 4 Labor day weekends Rich and I have gotten up very early on Saturday to drive to West Warwick, RI for a weekend full of Golf, Food, Parades and a lot of Laughs with our adopted Portuguese families.
You know how you have friends, you also will have some lifelong friends; ones you can just pick up where you left off and no one is upset that you haven’t been in touch in a month or so. Then you have friends that are more like family. Our buddy Steve and his wife Barney are part of a very large extended Portuguese family; and they have all adopted Rich and I; at least over Labor Day Weekend.
The family home is a duplex comprised of a brother and sister growing up in the same house since they were very young and later in life splitting the house in two. The brother and his family grew up on one side and the sister and her family on the other. They have lived like this for close to 60 years if not longer. There are cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, friends, neighbors; generation after generation that stop by; probably around 60 to 80 people stop by on Sunday throughout the day. I love how they all greet each other; everyone and I mean everyone gets a kiss on the cheek and a hug. They do this when you arrive and when you leave.
Saturday we play in the Golf tournament which is in Memoriam of Steve’s sister-in-law that passed away 10 years ago. This is followed up by a steak or chicken dinner & raffle at a local Portuguese Club – similar to our VFW’s. They tap the keg Saturday night; and to make sure that it is working properly; of course we have to test it. Sunday morning is set up day – tents, chairs, flags, crock pots and coolers. Rich took over the job of hanging the American and Portuguese flags on the front of the house; this is where we watch the parade from and take the “family” group picture. I help wherever I can and also sometimes help “shake” the crock pots; must be a family term. I will be booking our hotel for next year soon before they all fill up.
Portuguese food is something of a mystery to me. They tend to cook their food for a very long time. I peck at Steve all the time when we eat at each other’s places. We have come to an understanding; I like my steak medium rare and let’s just say he doesn’t. They make Cacoila (pronounced Caserla); and Chourico several different ways. They have a white pizza, a red pizza and a potato dish with Chourico and onions. Most are passed around by the Matriarch’s of the families the two Irene’s, or whoever they enlist to do the task. I lovingly refer to them all as the food pushers. They crack me up with Donna do you want a Caserla; which I do like but you can only eat so many of them, they walk by with Chourico which they have made into little pigs in a blanket. Not the usual BBQ fare that I am used to; you never walk out of there hungry!
This year we had to rush back on Sunday for a BBQ at my Uncles house. His 3 brothers were in town. One lives close by (my Dad) one from CA and the other from FL. It has been 20 years since they have all been together in the same spot; that is very sad to me. Everyone is getting a little older and traveling a little less; but I hope we can make it happen again soon!
We arrived at the BBQ late; we did make sure to tell them that we had a prior engagement in RI. When we did arrive I was happy to see many cousins and their children albeit just before they left; but it was still very nice to see them for a minute for a quick catch up chat.
With the few that stuck around we spent the last hour or so sharing some funny stories; some were cooking gone wrong stories I wanted to share. I am sure these have not only happened in my family. My husband was making gravy once; I am not sure where I was but he called me to ask how to make it. I told him how to make it using flour; he kept adding more and more and it just wouldn’t thicken – ummm it wasn’t flour; he grabbed the confectioners’ sugar – no gravy in the house that night. At least he tried! One also shared her oopsie moments – she had 2 very similar ones with very different results. Adding flour by mistake to peanut butter fudge; my uncle kept telling her that she had to have forgotten the sugar, fudge was supposed to be sweet; they threw that away. The other she added confectioners’ sugar to a chocolaty treat that should have been flour; she was going to a function and didn’t have time to remake so took it with her; the funny part is when people were asking her for the recipe. She said she gave them the correct recipe – I wonder if they still liked them…
Because I knew we were going to be late I actually had the pleasure of hosting the 4 brothers and 2 of their wives for dinner Thursday night. We had a wonderful evening filled with good food, lots of laughs and a lot of love as someone proclaimed. I will treasure that night forever!